Highlands Rewilding
Building back better for nature, people and planet
Highlands Rewilding seeks to help rewild and re-people the Scottish Highlands by increasing carbon sequestration, growing biodiversity, creating green new jobs and generating sustainable profit for purpose. By managing land this way, we aim to become a world leader in accelerating nature-based solutions that can help fight the existential and related crises of climate meltdown, biodiversity collapse, and social inequality, whilst helping to rebuild local economies.
Highlands Rewilding consists of 2 projects Bunloit (initiated in 2020) and Beldorney (initiated in 2021).
Bunloit Estate is based on the west shores of Loch Ness in Inverness-shire. The site contains a mosaic of habitats from native woodland to peatland, pastures to plantations. Overlooked by the mountain Meall Fuar-Mhonaidh, the land was purchased at the beginning of 2020, kick starting the journey to becoming a biodiverse carbon sink that fights the crises of climate meltdown and biodiversity collapse.
Since the start of the project, the Bunloit estate has been the subject of a twelve-month consultation with conservation groups, scientists, expert ecologists, government and the local community. In the second year they conducted baseline natural capital surveys that are informing their land management plan for the future.
Beldorney is a 349-hectare grassland-dominated estate, situated in Aberdeenshire. The contrast of land from Bunloit’s mosaic of habitats gives us the opportunity to implement lessons learned on Bunloit to a blank canvas for nature-recovery work, rewilding the land from the ground up. We plan riparian rewilding along the River Deveron and regenerative agriculture on some of the grassland.
Beldorney will be home to the COP26 Innovation Zone legacy “Forest of Hope”. Spanning the length of the Deveron river, the forest will extend from a broadleaf riparian woodland, down the valley into neighbouring land, where partnerships will align to rewild as much of the river valley as we can. We are working on this corridor in partnership with the Cabrach Trust, Woodland Trust and Trees for Life.
- Become an exemplar for natural capital research and nature based solutions.
- Provide educational, research and cultural opportunities.
- Work with local communities to build back better in a rural version of the Green New Deal through zero carbon timber eco-enterprise workshops and homes.
- Replicate and scale the Highlands Rewilding model to maximise the benefits to nature, people and the planet from this new type of land management.
- Significant progress in the research fields of natural capital verification science and nature based solutions.
- Creation of employment and affordable housing opportunities.
- Generation of sustainable and ethical profits.
- Ongoing community consultation and outreach in Glen Urquhart.
- Development of an extensive knowledge base to inform decision making due to 12 months of consultation with relevant experts and organisations.
- Acquisition of Highland Cattle for our conservation grazing mix.
Highlands Rewilding seeks to help rewild and re-people the Scottish Highlands by increasing carbon sequestration, growing biodiversity, creating green new jobs and generating sustainable profit for purpose. By managing land this way, we aim to become a world leader in accelerating nature-based solutions that can help fight the existential and related crises of climate meltdown, biodiversity collapse, and social inequality, whilst helping to rebuild local economies.
Highlands Rewilding consists of 2 projects Bunloit (initiated in 2020) and Beldorney (initiated in 2021).
Bunloit Estate is based on the west shores of Loch Ness in Inverness-shire. The site contains a mosaic of habitats from native woodland to peatland, pastures to plantations. Overlooked by the mountain Meall Fuar-Mhonaidh, the land was purchased at the beginning of 2020, kick starting the journey to becoming a biodiverse carbon sink that fights the crises of climate meltdown and biodiversity collapse.
Since the start of the project, the Bunloit estate has been the subject of a twelve-month consultation with conservation groups, scientists, expert ecologists, government and the local community. In the second year they conducted baseline natural capital surveys that are informing their land management plan for the future.
Beldorney is a 349-hectare grassland-dominated estate, situated in Aberdeenshire. The contrast of land from Bunloit’s mosaic of habitats gives us the opportunity to implement lessons learned on Bunloit to a blank canvas for nature-recovery work, rewilding the land from the ground up. We plan riparian rewilding along the River Deveron and regenerative agriculture on some of the grassland.
Beldorney will be home to the COP26 Innovation Zone legacy “Forest of Hope”. Spanning the length of the Deveron river, the forest will extend from a broadleaf riparian woodland, down the valley into neighbouring land, where partnerships will align to rewild as much of the river valley as we can. We are working on this corridor in partnership with the Cabrach Trust, Woodland Trust and Trees for Life.
- Become an exemplar for natural capital research and nature based solutions.
- Provide educational, research and cultural opportunities.
- Work with local communities to build back better in a rural version of the Green New Deal through zero carbon timber eco-enterprise workshops and homes.
- Replicate and scale the Highlands Rewilding model to maximise the benefits to nature, people and the planet from this new type of land management.
- Significant progress in the research fields of natural capital verification science and nature based solutions.
- Creation of employment and affordable housing opportunities.
- Generation of sustainable and ethical profits.
- Ongoing community consultation and outreach in Glen Urquhart.
- Development of an extensive knowledge base to inform decision making due to 12 months of consultation with relevant experts and organisations.
- Acquisition of Highland Cattle for our conservation grazing mix.